Elderly Olmsted Falls driver sentenced to house arrest, $128K restitution for hit-and-run death

View full sizeHelen Fettes, 81, rests her hands against her head as she listens to family members of Charlie Kho speak during her sentencing inside the chambers of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Hollie L. Gallagher at the Justice Center on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. Fettes was sentenced to five years of house arrest and was ordered to pay $128,000 in restitution.
Lisa Dejong, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An 81-year-old woman who tried to cover up the hit-and-run death of a 13-year-old Olmsted Township boy in October 2011 avoided prison and received five years of house arrest at her sentencing Monday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Helen Fettes, of Olmsted Falls, also was ordered to pay $128,000 in restitution and a $1,000 fine. Her driver’s license was revoked for life.

The mother, father and an uncle of the victim, Charlie Kho, asked Judge Hollie Gallagher to give Fettes the maximum sentence of 6 1/2 years. Fettes is allowed to leave her home for the next five years only for medical appointments and to attend church.

She pleaded no contest Nov. 30 to charges of vehicular homicide, failure to stop after an accident and tampering with evidence.

Kushner did not say whether Fettes’ use of Soma caused her to try to cover up the accident. Fettes took her car to a dealership for repairs after she struck Charlie and asked employees not to contact police or her insurance company. A suspicious secretary called police when she noticed hair and blood on the cracked windshield of Fettes’ 2008 Mercury Sable.

Fettes sat with her head bowed throughout much of Monday’s hearing. When given the chance to speak, Fettes apologized in a clear voice to Charlie’s family.

“I pray for them morning and night when I pray,” she said.

Kushner briefly described his client’s life. Fettes was born in Scotland, moved to Canada after college and married a man who abused her and left her with two small children. She made her way to the U.S. where, Kushner said, she rose through the ranks as an accountant at Forest City Enterprises. She has lived a law-abiding and admirable life, Kushner said.

Charlie’s mother, Ali Haley Kho, said her son’s death has “left a large hole in my heart.

“It’s very hard for me to understand that a mother and grandmother could be so heartless to leave someone on the side of the road to die,” Ali Kho said.

She pointed out the irony of how, as a driver’s education instructor, it’s her job to teach students about such dangers of driving while impaired.

“I never thought I’d be living with this nightmare,” she said. Ali Kho and the rest of her family declined to speak to reporters after the hearing.

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